Chain Prices
Chain prices depend almost entirely on size and material, so a single average would be misleading. Below are the specific products we have enough purchase data to price, each with its own range.
Chain prices by product
| Product | Typical range | Median | Purchases | Suppliers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHAIN FOR SIGN Zinc #16 x 100 | $0.04 – $0.50 / ft | $0.38 | 13 | 2 |
| 3/8" PROOF COIL CHAIN 45' SQUARE PAIL | $0.05 – $0.09 / ft | $0.09 | 11 | 2 |
2 of 14 chain products have enough independent purchase data to price. The rest are in our data but below the threshold we publish at.
Why chain prices vary so much
“Chain” covers a range of products rather than one item, and size and material move the price far more than which supplier you use. That is why a single average across all of them isn't useful for deciding whether you paid a fair price.
To check a specific purchase, find the matching product in the table above. If it isn't listed, we don't yet have enough independent purchases of that exact item to publish a figure we'd stand behind.
How we know this
These figures come from real invoices processed through CostCrunch, not list prices or survey data. Each line is normalised to a price per unit, the top and bottom 1% are excluded as outliers, and a figure is only published once there are at least 10 purchases of that item in the last 12 months. Where a figure rests on a single supplier or a single company we say so, because that is one buyer's experience rather than a market rate.
Check your own invoices against these prices — CostCrunch reads every line item and flags anything above market.